Entry Blog 4.0 Gunslinger Introduction

The Gunslinger aka Roland of Gilead is the last surviving soldier of the White Army from the place in the parallel universe where “the world has moved on”. Roland is on a quest to catch the man in black who’s his archenemy, and that’s the first step on his long journey to his ultimate goal- reaching the Dark Tower. Dark Tower is the place he has to reach in order to save not only his and our world but the all the worlds that exist, and in the same time he does not know what’s in the Dark Tower or what is he supposed to do when he gets there. On his way through the desert he stops to spend the night with the farmer Brown and his crow Zoltan, where we learn about his time spent in Tull, the city he visited prior to coming to desert. Roland leaves the farm and comes to the way station and meets Jake Chambers 11 year old kid who joins him. They proceed to the mountain where they have to go through underground tunnels. There they get attacked by “Slow Mutants” creatures from underground. After the tunnels they get close to the man in black and gunslinger has a chance to catch him, but in the meantime Jack gets in  trouble and gunslinger has to make choice between saving  Jack and catching up with the man in black. He chooses to go after the man in black, and just before Jack falls to the abyss he tells Roland “Go then, there are other worlds that these”. Roland catches up with the man in black and has palaver with him, and the man in black reads gunslinger’s fate from cards. He finds out that in order to reach the Dark Tower he needs to bring three other people to the All- World from the other world to join him, and one of the people is Jake who just died in this world but still lives in other world, and that his true enemy is the one who controls the Dark Tower. The man in black tries to persuade gunslinger to give up on his quest, but gunslinger refuses and the man in black makes him sleep for 10 years. When he wakes up he finds dry bones beside him and assumes that these belong to the man in black. Gunslinger continues his quest and starts to think of ways to bring the rest of the crew to the All-World. Part I stops here.

Blog Entry 3.5 Coraline Essay

My main archetype is Wanderer and second is Warrior. The first thing about my archetype is inability of being static. That translates mainly to boredom of everyday mundane tasks. I have a big urge to travel and explore, and that might have something to do with my moving from my home country to USA on my own. If there is an opportunity for adventure, I’ll take it with open arms. Other traits of my archetype include excitement about discovering new things and learning new things. There are also some negative traits, like taking risks that are not all that necessary.

With Coraline I see all main traits of my archetype in her archetype. First, she gets bored very quickly, for example when her mother asks her to “Draw something” p( 17), she quits after trying to draw the mist for ten minutes. Also when her mother asks her to read a book or watch the video, she answers “I don’t want to do these things. I want to explore.”p (6). She goes out to meet her neighbors right away and asks a lot of questions, and when she finds the locked door in the drawing room she insists to get the door unlocked so she can take a look. There is evident need for exploring, so she goes outside to explore the garden with tennis court and most importantly the well. This is where we discover her main trait in her Wanderer archetype-she goes to explore the well precisely because she was warned that it might be dangerous. There is also other example, when she goes back to the door again to unlock it and checks it out just because she has an urge to do so, and that is very understandable from my point of view because we are the same archetypes and have the same urges.

Coraline is also a warrior archetype because she has the fighting spirit and she is brave. The proof of her bravery is when she goes back to the other flat to rescue her parents even though she very well knows that is dangerous. She herself learned what the bravery means because she told the cat an example of her father rescuing her from the wasps and then coming back for his glasses after knowing how dangerous it is.

Knowing my archetype helped me recognize the reasoning behind Coraline’s decision making. I for example, felt her excitement when she first went to the other flat and saw the wanders like the toys that fly around, mice that perform just for her, or great food made just for her and not the usual stuff that her dad makes. All this is very tempting for these archetypes and they are ready to make some sacrifices like leaving you real parents in order to get more exciting ones who don’t brag a lot and let us play all day and eat whatever we want.

For others knowing my main archetype is helpful in a way that helps them understand the story better and gives them ability to recognize the different archetypes of the same character.

Work Cited:Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Blog Entry 3.4 Final Project Introduction

For my final project I decided to analyze The Dark Tower part I – The Gunslinger by Stephen King. The whole book has seven parts and over 3000 pages, which would be too long to do for this project so I’m going to stick with the part I, which is around 300 pages long. This is the longest and most exciting book I’ve ever read, and not to mention -100% supernatural. I read the book few years back and I’m starting today again to refresh my memory because it is little bit complex with characters, parallel worlds, and switching between past and present.

First I’ll start reading the book. On my next blog entry I plan to present the story and write the plot. Following entry will be concerned with the hero’s quest, symbols and archetypes. Third entry will be first draft with author’s info, plot and my analysis. Fourth entry will be my final draft.

3.3 Entry Blog ideas for final project

I will probably analyze one of the short stories by Stephen King, because he has plenty and they’re all have supernatural elements and of course I like his stories.